Gold Standard Trial Affirms Role of Diet, Exercise and Such to Prevent Dementia

7-17-2014 | Gary Stix, Senior Neuroscience Editor

In 2010, the National Institutes of Health held a conference to determine what measures, including behavioral steps like exercise and diet, could be taken to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s. A report prepared specifically for that conference by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) made an assessment of  the existing evidence for preventive measures. It determined that there was no intervention—whether jogging, the Mediterranean diet or a long list of other factors—for which there was sufficient proof to make any convincing recommendations to physicians or their patients

To be able to one day make such recommendations, the report suggested implementing randomized-controlled trials that would address multiple risk factors simultaneously in individuals with a high likelihood of getting the disease. The first results of pursuing this approach are now in—and they offer a sliver of hope in a field that has had little to cheer about in recent years, having experienced one drug failure after another.

Results of the first clinical trial that conforms to AHRQ’s pull-out-all-stops approach were presented at the Alzheimer’s Association’s International Conference in Copenhagen on July 13. The large-scale study of 1260 individuals at risk of cognitive decline showed that study volunteers who rigorously adhered to measures prescribed for diet, exercise, cognitive training, social engagement and management of cardiac risk factors had better results on a battery of tests of cognitive results than did a control group that had received more generic health counseling.

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